Rahm Emanuel counts on big donors, with many getting City Hall benefits
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| Mayor Emanuel's job is to fund raise then award his sponsors. |
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is
building the most potent political cash machine in Chicago history by focusing
on an elite circle of donors who frequently receive City Hall benefits, ranging
from contracts and permits to appointments and personal endorsements from the
mayor, a Tribune investigation has found.
Emanuel has tapped these roughly 100 most loyal
contributors for more than $14 million — nearly half of all the money he's
raised since he left the White House to run for mayor. All those key donors —
consisting of individuals, couples, business partners and firms — are repeat
givers.
The mayor regularly courts his benefactors behind
closed doors — at their homes, at restaurants, and at the downtown headquarters
of their law offices, development companies and investment firms. He welcomes
many to his own fifth-floor office in City Hall.
Emanuel's 60 elite donors, with connections
In an unprecedented look at the intersection of
Emanuel's political fundraising and his public duties, the Tribune analyzed
years of his public schedules, thousands of administration actions and all of
the more than $30.5 million in contributions to his campaign funds since he
first ran for mayor in 2010.
The examination found a pattern of mutually
beneficial interactions between the mayor and his major supporters. Some of
those actions play out in public as part of the Emanuel administration's
high-energy marketing strategy. But the political piece typically takes place
behind the scenes.
Emanuel is at the center of it all, moving seamlessly
between his roles as chief executive and chief fundraiser.
The pattern may be best viewed through Emanuel's top
donors.
Nearly 60 percent of those 103 donors benefited from
his city government, receiving contracts, zoning changes, business permits, pension
work, board appointments, regulatory help or some other tangible benefit.
In some cases, the benefits are related to Emanuel's
role as Chicago's endorser-in-chief.
The mayor holds news conferences to promote major
real estate developments that still need city approval while tapping the
investors for political cash. He lends his credibility and cachet to other top
donors by publicly praising their business expansion plans, by appearing at
their firm's meetings or by pitching Chicago's strengths at conferences they
sponsor.
Emanuel regularly meets with his political
supporters, a level of access provided to few in the city. His public calendar
listed 376 business meetings, public appearances and private fundraisers
involving the mayor and political donors in 2013 and 2014. About 1 in 5 of all
of Emanuel's business meetings with non-staff members involved a campaign
donor.
Emanuel's donors respond
Neither Emanuel nor his top donors are hindered by
his narrowly drawn executive orders restricting campaign contributions from
people seeking city business. State conflict of interest and campaign
regulations likewise do not address the type of symbiotic relationship between the
top political donors and the powerful mayor, who dominates the City Council,
controls every city agency and maintains close relations in the White House he
ran as chief of staff just a few years ago.
Emanuel's prowess as an in-your-face fundraiser for
fellow Democrats from Richard Daley to Bill Clinton to Barack Obama is
legendary, a hands-on approach he now uses for himself. Emanuel declined to be
interviewed for this story.
In response to Tribune questions, the mayor's
communications director issued a statement citing the ethics rules he adopted
in his first days in office. They bar contributions from city contractors or
those seeking city business, but only under specific circumstances.
"Mayor Emanuel has strengthened ethics and
campaign fundraising standards more than any other mayor, strictly adhering to
existing law and those higher standards he has set for himself via executive
order that further limit campaign contributions," spokeswoman Kelley Quinn
said in the statement.
"And the mayor's record consistently reflects
his willingness to take on special interests — including holding Wall Street banks
accountable for managing their vacant properties in our city, eliminating fuel
tax loopholes for airlines, and eliminating tax exemptions for cable companies
and on luxury corporate skyboxes — to always ensure the interest of Chicago's
taxpayers and residents are protected."
Power base built on political cash
While previous mayors have used ward organizations
and patronage armies to dominate local campaigns, Emanuel has little of that
kind of infrastructure. Instead, he derives his political muscle almost
entirely from fundraising.
When the mayor sees his donors
His campaign funds serve as both a defense against
potential challengers and a weapon to take on opponents. He started months ago
airing television campaign commercials aimed at building his advantage for the
Feb. 24 municipal election.
It took Emanuel's predecessor, Daley, nearly three
decades to accumulate $40 million. Emanuel is three-fourths of the way there
after just four years. To do it, Emanuel has cultivated many of the same power
players from Chicago — and dozens more from the national level during years of
working Hollywood, Wall Street and the Beltway.
More than half of the $30.5 million raised for
Emanuel by the end of 2014 came from just 348 donors. That combination of
individuals, business partners, spouses and firms poured $17.8 million into his
funds both before and after he was elected.
Within that group is an even more select cadre of
103 donors who contributed at least $10,000 to Emanuel before he was elected
mayor and at least $10,000 more after he took office. That group's total
donations add up to $14.5 million, most going to Emanuel's two campaign funds
and the rest to an Emanuel-aligned political action committee.
Emanuel ended 2014 with a flurry of donations that
boosted his campaign funds to more than $6.5 million — six times the combined
resources of his two biggest challengers, Ald. Bob Fioretti, 2nd, and Cook
County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.
And as the year drew to a close, Emanuel's dual
roles as city builder and political candidate were on display with one of his
top donors.
'A great building'
In mid-December, Emanuel stood alongside the co-CEO
of Magellan Development Group and officials of the firm's Chinese partner to
publicize plans for a hotel, retail and condominium building along the Chicago
River that could become the city's third-tallest skyscraper.
The project is still subject to multiple steps in
the city's permit process, including City Hall approval of Magellan's proposal
to build the tower 500 feet taller than the Lakeshore East development plan
allows. But Emanuel pronounced it a "great building" and applauded
the Wanda Group of China for choosing an "all-Chicago" team,
including Magellan.
"At many different levels, this opportunity and
the agreement we're going to sign today — the parties are going to sign today —
I think speaks volumes about the city of Chicago, the opportunity here, and the
opportunity to continue to build a great city," Emanuel said.
The mayor conducted the news conference himself,
gesturing to Magellan co-CEO Joel Carlins to speak at the microphone and then
ushering the partners to a table for a ceremonial signing of the development
agreement.
Four months before the news conference, Carlins was
the host and Emanuel was the guest at the wealthy developer's home, according
to the mayor's calendar. The purpose: a fundraiser the mayor requested,
according to a source with knowledge of the event.
On that day, Aug. 26, and in the weeks that
followed, Emanuel's campaign logged checks from Carlins and eight other
Magellan employees and one spouse totaling more than $47,000. That's on top of
$16,300 in previous donations tied to the firm.
Magellan officials declined to comment.
Emanuel places no restriction on donations from real
estate developers, even though city approval of their projects can be worth far
more money than a city contract would be to another business.
On a stretch of North Clark Street in River North,
three companies — all among Emanuel's top donors — have a piece of a
development that needed several OKs from City Hall.
The main developer, Friedman Properties, built a
major hotel complex that opened in 2013 and features more than 600 rooms under
three different hotel names, including the Aloft Chicago City Center. Emanuel
collected more than $75,000 in donations tied to the firm, including more than
$30,000 from CEO Albert Friedman.
The project was built in partnership with another
top donor, White Lodging, which gave Emanuel $66,000.
Friedman and White Lodging did not return calls for
comment.
Housed inside the hotel complex is the restaurant Beatrix,
a new concept from Chicago's famed Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.
Kevin Brown, the CEO of Lettuce, said Melman told
him about the fundraiser and he went to show his support for the mayor's
efforts in the city, not because of any pressure or the O'Hare business. He
said the mayor's comments were likewise not directed at Lettuce.
"It was just, 'Thank you for being here,' and
he's proud of the city," Brown said. "He was encouraged about the
city and where we're headed."
It usually starts with a phone call saying, 'This is
your mayor calling, and I need help.' I say, 'No you don't.' And he laughs, and
then we start talking.- Attorney Robert Clifford, one of the 103 top donors to
the mayor Emanuel frequently calls his top donors personally,
asking them to contribute to his campaign or host fundraisers in which their
employees, spouses and friends can help fill his political funds, according to
donors and others in Chicago political circles. Some who receive such calls
feel pressure to give because the mayor himself is making the request, said
several people familiar with the mayor's fundraising practices.
In many cases, once those business executives agree,
Emanuel's longtime fundraiser Anne Olaimey follows up and handles specifics,
including when and where fundraisers will be scheduled and how many donors to
expect.
Well-known personal injury attorney Robert Clifford,
a major Democratic fundraiser and among the group of 103 top donors to the
mayor, described Emanuel's personal touch.
"It usually starts with a phone call saying,
'This is your mayor calling, and I need help,' '' Clifford said in an
interview. "I say, 'No you don't.' And he laughs, and then we start
talking."
Clifford said he has known Emanuel since his days as
a "force of nature" raising money for national Democrats.
"He's learned how to use that phone pretty
well," Clifford said.
Clifford said he doesn't do business with the city
"in any way, shape or form." He said he and his wife, who chairs the
Goodman Theatre board, donate because "we're just proud of him."
A number of Emanuel's big donors were stalwart Daley
supporters when Emanuel was just a fundraiser, including many of the city's top
developers.
John Buck has erected some 20 office buildings,
condo towers and hotels in the last 34 years. And, as with Daley before him,
Emanuel has significant ties to the pre-eminent developer.
In January 2013, Buck invited Emanuel and other
business leaders to Buck's condo overlooking Lake Shore Drive for dinner with
billionaire British mogul Richard Branson, who had hired Buck to redevelop the
historic Old Dearborn Bank Building into his first Virgin Hotel in the U.S.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel along with then-Deputy Mayor Mark
Angelson, center, and Michael Sacks, Vice Chairman of World Business Chicago
and top Emanuel donor, give a press conference on the green rooftop at City
Hall in 2011. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)
Two months later, Emanuel invited Buck to the fifth
floor of City Hall, his calendar shows. Soon after, Buck started clearing
tenants out of a squat, six-story building at 200 N. Michigan Ave. to make way
for a project of his own — a 42-story glass residential tower.
In July 2013, Buck's project would start to wind its
way through the city planning department and then to a City Council zoning
committee, where it would sit for four months. That December, Buck filed plans
with the city for a second project — a 37-story Loop office tower.
Within a week, Emanuel would cash $37,000 in checks
from seven Buck employees, on top of two maximum $5,300 contributions Buck and
his wife had made a couple of weeks earlier.
Emanuel had Buck back to City Hall for a meeting on
Jan. 16, 2014. Seven days later, Buck's Michigan Avenue residential tower
passed through committee, followed by unanimous City Council approval. The
Emanuel administration and aldermen signed off on Buck's second project at the
end of April.
Emanuel returned to Buck's condo in September 2014,
three days before he attended the Michigan Avenue groundbreaking with Buck, the
pair posing with silver shovels in their hands.
Buck did not return calls for comment. Emanuel's
spokeswoman said Buck's donations don't affect his treatment at City Hall.
"Owners or employees of entities doing private
projects — including homeowners who seek construction permits for their homes,
small business owners who apply for licenses, or other individuals involved in
private business and require a standard city approval — are not prohibited from
contributing to candidates at any level," Quinn said in an email.
Emanuel's City Hall has granted more than
development approvals to Buck, who along with employees and his wife have
donated $140,000 to the mayor. Two pension funds controlled by the mayor have
used Buck's firm to make real estate investments. Buck was also appointed by
Emanuel to World Business Chicago, a powerful and exclusive economic
development board of more than 70 members that drives deals to bring new
businesses and investments to the city.
World Business Chicago
Emanuel's top donors account for 18 members on the
World Business Chicago board, which strategizes with the mayor behind closed
doors on ways to improve Chicago's economic future.
Craig Duchossois, CEO of Elmhurst-based Duchossois
Group, another top Emanuel donor and WBC member, said he gets calls from the
mayor asking for donations. He and other WBC members said they didn't see their
appointments as a benefit, but rather a form of public service.
Leading the board is Michael Sacks, CEO of the hedge
fund firm Grosvenor Capital Management. Sacks, his employees, spouses and
others tied to the firm have donated more than $1 million to Emanuel, making
Sacks and his firm the mayor's No. 1 contributor.
Mayor Emanuel has strengthened ethics and campaign
fundraising standards more than any other mayor...[his] record consistently
reflects his willingness to take on special interests- Emanuel spokeswoman
Kelley Quinn
Far more than a political supporter, Sacks serves
more like a trusted partner as Emanuel governs Chicago. During meetings with
key aides on vital topics such as pension reform or the city budget, Sacks is
often the only private citizen in the room.
Sacks' influence cannot be measured in benefits to
his firm. He has sworn off doing any business with the city to avoid conflicts
of interest.
But when Emanuel needed a new city treasurer last
year to replace City Hall's highest-level African-American official, Stephanie
Neely, he plucked one of Sacks' most high-profile employees, Kurt Summers, the
former top aide to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Summers
oversees how the city's capital funds are invested and will help decide if any
of Sacks' contemporaries in the world of private finance will get city business.
Sacks declined to comment.
Law firms and bond business
Law firms are a rich source of campaign donations
for Emanuel, and he has repeatedly appeared at fundraisers thrown by partners
of big firms that get city business. Such fundraising might appear to violate
Emanuel's self-imposed rules banning donations from those seeking city business
and prohibiting city contractors from "bundling" donations to gain
more credit.
But Emanuel campaign aides are always at the
fundraisers to collect the checks from lawyer after lawyer, his campaign has
said. Handling the money that way allows Emanuel — and the lawyers — to record
the donations individually. That avoids the mayor's bans.
That's been the case at premier Chicago firm DLA
Piper, which specializes in helping private developers find government
incentives for their projects. That often means tapping into the millions of
dollars in financing available through the city's tax increment financing
funds, or TIFs.
In mid-2014, Emanuel made a guest appearance at DLA
Piper's Global Board Meeting, at the Langham Hotel on the Chicago River. In
September, he came back to help the firm a second time, addressing DLA Piper's
Global Real Estate Summit, held at the Four Seasons hotel.
DLA Piper began giving to Emanuel early, records
show, with the firm's lawyers and their relatives donating $54,000 to Emanuel
for his first run for mayor. In summer 2013, more than $75,000 in donations
tied to the firm were recorded.
Around the same time, DLA Piper was involved in
getting tax subsidies for clients. In June 2013, the firm helped Chicago
sausage company Vienna Beef secure a $5 million city tax subsidy, according to
city records.
DLA officials did not return calls for comment.
Other firms that are major Emanuel donors make money
from city bond business, such as Katten Muchin Rosenman, which employs former
Mayor Daley. The firm made more than $360,000 in fees in two 2012 bond deals
involving O'Hare, city records show.
Later that year, Katten lawyers attended a
fundraiser held at the home of real estate heavyweight Judd Malkin and partly
organized by firm partner Terry Newman, a good friend of the mayor's. Employees
from the firm were recorded as donating more than $18,000. Newman also helped
organize a second fundraiser for the mayor, Katten spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard
said.
Emanuel also gets donations from financial firms
that act as underwriters for city bond deals, including The Northern Trust Co.
and Goldman Sachs.
When Goldman Sachs was attached to a $600 million
bond issue in 2012, the company still employed top donor Muneer Satter, who has
since started his own investment management firm. Emanuel has been to Satter's
Winnetka home, according to his calendar.
With wife Kristen Hertel, Satter has contributed
more than $352,000 to the mayor, including a check for $100,000 as Emanuel was
first running for office and while Satter was still with Goldman Sachs. Satter
declined to comment.
City contracts, Emanuel donations
Emanuel's self-imposed bans on city contractors
giving money to him don't apply if the company ownership is diffuse. That has
meant hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into his campaign, all tied to
companies getting contracts from his administration.
Businesswoman Trisha Rooney Alden said she held one
of Emanuel's first mayoral fundraisers, hosting about 40 people at her home in
October 2010. Her father, former Waste Management CEO Phil Rooney, donated
$10,000 around the same time. After Emanuel was elected, the Rooney family
donated another $15,000 to the mayor's campaign funds, records show.
She heads a company called R4 Services, a firm based
in Bridgeport that provides off site records storage for law firms, health care
companies and governments. The City Colleges of Chicago approved a five-year,
$400,000 contract with R4 for records storage in June 2012. A year later, the
city of Chicago agreed to a $3 million contract with R4 for records storage.
Rooney said she donated because she is a
long-standing friend of Emanuel's: "I've always been supportive of Rahm,
both personally and professionally, and he's been the same for me. And I love
the direction he's taking the city in."
Madison Dearborn
Few relationships better illustrate the
interdependence between Emanuel and his corporate counterparts than his ties to
Madison Dearborn Partners, a longtime private equity firm that hosted the mayor
at its annual meeting in November at the Four Seasons.
Contributors associated with Madison Dearborn are
responsible for more than $858,000 in giving to the mayor's funds, according to
the Tribune examination. Officials with the firm did not return calls for
comment.
Madison Dearborn holds a significant stake in CDW
Government Inc., which has received two Emanuel administration contracts worth
more than $39 million.
Madison Dearborn co-CEO Samuel Mencoff, an Emanuel
appointee to World Business Chicago, is one of the mayor's bigger individual
donors.
And last year, loyal donors like Mencoff were given
a new way to show their support for the mayor — a superfund PAC with the
ability to bring in unlimited amounts of money under campaign law. While not
allowed to coordinate with Emanuel's campaign, the Chicago Forward fund has the
ability to support Emanuel-aligned candidates for alderman and assault the
mayor's opponents with negative advertising.
The fund, run by a former Emanuel spokeswoman, was
formed June 24.
Mencoff gave $150,000 on the day the fund was
created, and many others followed.
In its first two weeks, Chicago Forward reeled in
$1.3 million from 14 contributors. All of them are in Emanuel's circle of top
donors.
jchase@tribpub.com
jcoen@tribpub.com
bruthhart@tribpub.com
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